Sesshoumaru's Reunion
by Sayo Naginata
Summary: A story about the Demon Lord of the West and his reuniting with an old childhood friend who he thought was gone for good.
1. Default Chapter

Sesshoumaru's Reunion

Returning Memories  


Exploring the Western Lands, the demon lord Sesshoumaru walked over his domain. For the past two days he'd caught a familiar scent, and had been tracking it down ever since. It agitated him because he could not place the scent, nor could he seem to find the source of it. Sesshoumaru had no clue just why it was so familiar, but because it was he was drawn to search it out.  
Sesshoumaru had left Rin behind for now, keeping Jaken in charge of watching over her and Ah-Un. He knew Jaken would at least keep them alive, after all he had threatened the imp's life if he got them in any danger. He knew not what risk this unusual smell might provide, and he was not willing to take Rin along and get her in danger.  
Stopping at the edge of the large forest in his land, he took a silent sniff of the air. There…the scent was stronger here. He started to walk again, moving slowly and following the scent, as it was gradually getting stronger. Once Sesshoumaru could figure out whatever this peculiar scent was he could return home, back to searching for Inu-Yasha.  
Once more Sesshoumaru stopped and looked on. This time it was not to just follow the smell, but he saw someone. He was only about 20 feet away and he could sense the demonic aura coming off the figure. Approaching more, he stopped about five feet away now. The figure was a woman, who was curled up against a tree, apparently sleeping. He didn't get any closer there, taking a good look at her from there.  
Sesshoumaru didn't recognize her, but that familiar scent he had smelled earlier was definitely coming from her. He looked at her oddly. She looked human at first glance, though her demon aura told otherwise. Her hair was shoulder length and blood red in color, looking like a pool of red as she lay there.

She was fair skinned, her complexion smooth like porcelain. She wore a golden kimono with a red phoenix on the back of it. Her kimono was short, stopping just above her knees. It was tied closed with a red silk sash that was tied in a large bow in the back. Her hands were delicately clawed as he could tell even from there. There was a fan sticking from half of her sash, apparently some sort of weapon.

Sesshoumaru blinked as he saw her stir, rolling onto her back and opening her eyes. They were orange in color, blazing like a live fire. She sat up quickly, staring at Sesshoumaru, and he took one step back, his hand on the hilt of Toukijin as he glared at the demoness. She rose to her feet, staring at him oddly. She didn't speak as she got up, brushing her kimono off lightly, and then looking at the demon lord.  
"Who are you?" Sesshoumaru broke the thick silence, his tone sharp and demanding an answer from her. The woman stared blankly, then sighed a little.  
"So…you don't remember me then." She murmured. "Then again, it was so long ago. Over 900 years ago. I'm hardly surprised. My name is Fiori." She told him, bowing a little bit in respect, already seeming to know his position as the Dog Demon Lord of the Western Lands.  
"Fiori…and what exactly is your purpose for being here in the West? And what did you mean that I don't remember?" He sounded a little confused, but would never show great emotion. Not if it risked making him look compassionate. He kept himself to himself, as many said about him.  
"It's quite a long story." She told him. "I do hope you have a lot of time on your hands." She said. Sesshoumaru stared suspiciously, then nodded. "I do." He said, sitting down and watching as she started to pace and exhaled sharply.  
"Well…you see, it sort of started when I was three years old. I'm a fire demon, and when I was three I lost control of my anger. My fire powers went out of control. Supposedly they were strong enough to burn the East flat to the ground. The East was, and is, my home. But back then I had instantly been hated by the survivors. They chased me, and so I ran. I ran for a while…all the way to the Western lands. I didn't know where I was, but I felt I was safe enough to stop running for the time." Fiori started her story, walking back and forth, looking at the ground in her thought on the very old memory that was still burned fresh in her mind as though it was something that had only happened a day ago.  
"When I was in the West, I met a dog demon. It turned out he was the Lord of the West at the time. Explaining my dilemma to him, he allowed me to stay in his castle for some time. There I would earn my own keep by helping out in any way a three year old could, and so on. While I was there, I learned of the Lord's son, who turned out to be my age. I met him, and befriended the boy. We played together often, as I had nobody else." She went on, her true position hardly changing.  
"By the time the Demon Lord's son and I were five years old we had become good friends. Almost every day in the summer we would play outside. Running in the grass, watching the clouds, swimming, anything you can think of. We had a lot of fun together. Indeed, those were the better days of my life." Fiori sighed, a faint smile showing on her lips at the ghost memory.  
"But I had known it would not always last. When I reached the age of 8, people began coming after me. The demon lord offered some protection, but I had been taught at a young age not to burden others with my problems. I had to leave. But before I actually did, I had to say goodbye to my only friend. Back then I wore four blue ribbons in my hair with little bells on each of them. I took one out, and gave it to him, to remember me by. I told him 'I'll come back whenever I can get away without burdening anyone else. It might be a long time, but I promise to come.' And then…I left." Fiori slumped against one tree, her form limp. "It has been a long, long time…but I did come back to see my old friend." She smiled and looked at Sesshoumaru, who had been watching her with the same placid expression while she spoke.

Though he knew he might regret this, he walked towards her. "Fiori, how do you remember that all if it was over 900 years ago?" Sesshoumaru asked, staring down at her. The playful fire demon smiled a little. "I promised to come back, so I had to remember it all." She shrugged. "Don't you remember it? When I promised you that I would come back to see you and we would be able to play together once more?" She asked, smirking.  
Sesshoumaru got wide eyed. She might have told her tale, but it was only now that it all came rushing back. The familiar summer sounds and smells from the two of them running around all the time, laughing. The noise the bells in her hair that jingled every time she moved, preventing her from sneaking up on anyone as she often tried. Even the day she had left, possibly the only time she'd even shown that she did own the ability to show sorrowful emotions. He looked at Fiori now, able to remember her eight-year-old image and seeing she hadn't truly changed too much. She still held a very childish look in her features, and seemed as fidgety as ever.

How could he have not recognized that scent? Or that the curled up sleeping woman was the same little girl who used to curl herself up in the grass and make up all sorts of storied with him? How could Sesshoumaru have forgotten the little girl who had suddenly shown up one day, immediately stating her name, where she was from, and then offering instantly to go play a game. But then he remembered why he'd forgotten. Because all this had happened over 900 years ago, and he'd been too distracted with chasing his hanyou half brother around.  
"I remember it." He said dully, looking at Fiori. Fiori laughed. "I was afraid you might have gone dead…you were staring off." She said and smiling, her head tilting a little. She showed once more her old self inside this new face she had. "I was remembering." He told her. "I remember it all now. From the day you came to when you left." He said. Fiori grinned. "I know." She said, though she hadn't at first. "Sesshoumaru, do you still have the ribbon?" She asked. Sesshoumaru looked at his arm, then pushed his sleeve up. Tied around his bicep where it couldn't be found easily was slightly faded blue ribbon. "I had to remove the bells so that-" He had started to explain when Fiori held up her hand.  
"I understand. You're a demon lord. Wearing a ribbon with some bells would be foolish. I'm just glad you still have the ribbon alone." She said softly. "Did you want it back?" He asked. Fiori shook her head. "No. Not at all." She smiled. "I want you to keep it as long as possible. And if you ever lose it for some reason, I still have the other ones." She told him. And right after that she did something that really threw the demon lord off guard, something that few people could manage to do. And, had any other person done this they might have been killed on the spot.  
Fiori walked forward and wrapped her arms around him, putting her head down on his shoulder and closing her eyes. She hugged him firmly, holding him as if she were never going to get the chance to do so again. As if she were never going to speak to him again in her life. This definitely took Sesshoumaru off guard, and for a minute he just sort of stood there idly, confused. Then he sighed a little, putting one arm around her, closing his eyes and letting every childhood memory of the two of them come back to him more clearly then.

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Fiori is my copyrighted character. Nobody is to use her in any story, fan fiction, etc. without my consent. Thank you! –Ravenwolf Naginata.


	2. Chapter Two: A Joyous Past

Chapter Two:  
A joyous past.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-Yasha, or any of the characters in it. Though I wish I did.

Author's note: It's been longer than I would have hoped. But I had a project to do, and my computer continuously is crashing on me. Anyways, I do hope you enjoy this chapter. It was a bit rushed, but I'm trying my hardest to work in typing up fanfics into my schedule. Hopefully with all my projects out of the way I will now have time to post up chapters more often.

Watching from a window, a little boy saw smoke billowing in the Eastern sky. He'd been watching it for a long time now. Almost all day, and the day before. His sharp senses allowed him to smell faint traces of smoke, even from where he was.

A loud clatter from another room caught his attention. As he turned, his gaze was level with someone else's. It was a little girl, probably his age. The young boy looked past the girl and at his father, staring up at him as he was stationed behind the girl.  
"Sesshoumaru, this girl is Fiori. She will be here for a while." He said. "I want you to be nice, alright?" He asked him. Sesshoumaru looked at the girl, Fiori was it? Her eyes were very bright, happy, even excited. She seemed to be a bit…energetic. Possibly a bit too much to his liking at the time, because he was bored to a state of placidness. Hopefully he could change to fulfill his father's wishes. Looking back to his father, he raised an eyebrow in an inquiring way that was not often seen in children at such a young age.

"Why is she staying?" He asked, not partial to having a girl around. No doubt she would only get in his way. Plus, she'd probably want to do stupid stuff to him, like braid his hair, or play with dolls. He couldn't stand stuff like that. It was too boring. Plus, though he didn't know it, it required a type of imagination that had yet to develop in him.  
"I'll leave that for her to tell you. Just try to get along. She's been through quite a bit, but I think once she settles in, you two will get along well. I'm going back now." He said and smiled at Sesshoumaru and pat his son's shoulder lightly, then left. There was a while of silence, until Sesshoumaru broke it by asking a question.  
"What did father say your name was?" He asked with a sullen, dark tone. He had hardly forgotten, but it was the only way he thought to break the silence that was making him feel oddly uncomfortable. Fiori grinned wildly, her eyes glittering with mischief. She began to jump up and down with excitement, her red hair tossing about lightly.  
"Fiori. My name is Fiori. And I'm from the East." She nodded happily. Her voice was happy, but he heard the faint traces of what made her a prankster and a sharp little girl. Fiori stopped jumping. "Can you say it?" She asked, a bit breathily from all her jumping. Something that had at first confused Sesshoumaru, having no clue what she was so happy about. As she asked the question, her head gave a little tilt to the side.

"Fiori..." He said dully. He could hear bells jingling from the deep blue colored ribbons that she was wearing in her hair. It was odd for him to see someone wearing such a thing. It was uncommon in the west, because most of the people would not want to make themselves such easy targets with the loud bells. But maybe things had been different in the East.  
"I don't exactly know your name. But your father told me that you were his son. And a dog demon too." She grinned happily. "In the East there were no dog demons." She said. Sesshoumaru stared blankly at her. She was too easily amused with what he was, in his opinion. She smiled. "Well, may I know your name?" She asked. Sesshoumaru shifted. "It's Sesshoumaru." He said with the same dull tone.  
"Se…Sess…" She looked a bit frustrated as she struggled to pronounce his name. He looked at her. "Sesshoumaru." He repeated it very slowly for her. She struggled once more, and Sesshoumaru sighed. It should not have been that hard for her to learn his name. "Call me what you will, until you can learn it." He said. Fiori nodded wildly, her hair tossing about again. "Alright!" She said happily, and then laughed. "Hey, do you want to play a game?" She asked excitedly.

"Maybe…First I want to know just why you're here. Father never took another demon in before. You must have done something that peaked his interests. Whatever the case, I want to know what happened." He said, and sat on the floor, looking at her. Her expression changed a bit and she looked down. "Alright. But then you have to promise something." She said. He sighed. "What?" He asked, not liking to make promises that he wasn't going to keep. But if it got him to know, he might as well. "Just don't hate me afterwards." She said. He glanced at her, a bit surprised and confused. What kind of promise was that? "Alright." He said, though it was just to get her to start talking.  
"Well, first I think you should know that I am a fire demon. The powers I have are hard to control, especially since I'm young. I'm normally under close watch or I have special beads that keep me from losing control. But I didn't have either two days ago. I'd been walking from my home, since I wanted to go for a walk. But my brother followed me. He'd been getting on my nerves all day." She said softly, looking down all the time as she spoke.  
"Well, after a while he got on my nerves. I got really angry. I went to throw just a fireball at him…but my anger got the better of me. It flared up and covered the ground. Since I couldn't control it, the fire was spreading. Within a day it had destroyed everything in the East. Most of the demons had run. They came back when the fire was gone. All of them were mad at me. They decided to chase me. I did what I could to run away." She said. "I'm pretty fast on my feet, so I was able to find a good place to hide away from them. But I didn't know I'd run all the way to the Western lands." She said and looked at Sesshoumaru. He was looking at her, paying attention. She glanced back down.  
"Anyways…that was when your father found me. I told him my story, and he sad he would help me. He killed the demons that were chasing me…and then we came here, though it was a long walk. It took a day to get here." She said. "But I told him a lot about myself on the way. And…that's pretty much all." She said and shrugged, looking at Sesshoumaru. He stared up at the ceiling for a while. After a minute, he sighed. "Well then…do you want to play now?" He asked, standing up and smirking a little…

P.S. This is how I've decided to do my fanfics. One chapter is the present, one the past. That way you will learn about what's going on with Fiori and Sesshoumaru in the present, and what their past was like.

Fiori is my copyrighted character. Nobody is to use her in any story, fan fiction, etc. without my consent. Thank you! –Ravenwolf Naginata.


End file.
